Guardian: Protectors of Light

by Melanie Houtman

  *

  The Guardians didn’t sleep long; hardly six hours had passed before they’d all woken up. It was time to go.

  Gabriel had provided Thomas with a leather bag, where they could carry food and other necessities in.

  “You’re going to have to hunt for food,” Gabriel said. “There will be some fruit trees along the way, but to get enough food, I’d advise you to shoot a few birds every day.”

  “Sure thing,” Bella said, although James and Samira had a doubting look on their faces.

  “Thank you for teaching me how to craft arrows,” Samira said to Gabriel, who responded with a humble nod. “Of course,” he said. “You’ll be running out of arrows sooner than you think, so you’ll need to be able to make your own. Now you know.” He smiled at Samira, and she smiled back.

  The Guardians said goodbye to Gabriel and left. Gabriel promised they could stop by any time in case of trouble; the teenagers took his advice to heart before officially starting their journey.

  Attack

  The sun was up high in the sky, although it wasn’t really noticeable through the right roof of leaves the trees of the forest formed, blocking most of the sunlight.

  “How’s this actually possible?” James said, inspecting his sword. “Every time I pull my sword out of its scabbard, it instantly starts to glow. How’s that possible?” he asked his friends.

  Nobody seemed to really know the answer, however. Perhaps it was something within the blade, maybe it was enchanted. Who knew but the smith?

  They continued down a narrow path - or at least, a small dirt road which seemed to be a path.

  “So, did Gabriel give any advice on where we should go next?” Bella asked Thomas, who was still walking in front of the group, carrying the map. It was slightly easier to read it during the day.

  “He mentioned a house he’d built to figure as a shelter, beyond the river to the east,” Thomas replied. “As soon as we cross the bridge, we should be almost there.”

  As he was staring at the map, Thomas suddenly froze. His hand moved up to stop everyone from walking.

  “Shh,” Thomas whispered. “They’re back. They followed us here.”

  The question “Who?” was answered before it was even asked. The Shadow Walkers appeared from the shadows again, growling loudly and teeth bared.

  “Don’t worry, guys!” Antonio yelled. “This is what we’ve been practicing for, right? I’d say it’s time to give these furry freaks a show!”

  His friends agreed with him; drawing their weapons, they ran forward and engaged in battle.

  The wolves were strong, fast and agile, and incredibly hard to see when they hid in the shadows. But the strong glow of their eyes gave them a disadvantage; their eyes were visible at all times, unless they kept them closed, forming a moderately easy target to hit.

  James tried using his fencing skills against one of the wolves, but was quick to learn that he had to develop his own style. When he noticed the wolf was about to leap forward, he slid down underneath it, stabbing the beast in the chest with his sword. As soon as the sword pierced its flesh, the Shadow Wolf dissolved into black smoke, which seemed to blend in with the shadows. James looked behind him, looking if any of his friends needed help.

  Antonio was standing his ground, tricking the wolves into attacking each other; he used another wolf to knock them out, by piercing the smallest with his glaive and smacking the wolves with it like a baseball bat. The three wolves dissolved on impact.

  Unfortunately, Thomas was in less luck. He and Bella were fighting back-to-back, until Thomas noticed something from the corner of his eye; Samira looked like she was in trouble.

  She managed to keep the Shadow Walkers at distance, but they came up faster than she could shoot. James, Bella and Thomas all three rushed in to help her, while Antonio had their backs.

  They fought off the wolves as a team, until the very last one - or at least, so they thought they did.

  One wolf had been clever enough to hide itself in the shadows and wait for the right moment to strike, which turned out to be when everyone had their back turned toward it.

  “Next time, we need to fight more as a team,” James said. “We can’t just go running around on our own; together, we’ll be five times as strong as on our own.” He noticed something moving in the corner of his eye, but didn’t think much of it. At least, not enough to instantly attack it, which was ultimately what he should’ve done; luckily, Thomas noticed in time that the wolf was about to attack Samira, as she’d been standing in front of him all the time.

  “SAMIRA!” Thomas yelled. “WATCH OUT!”

  He grabbed Samira and threw her on the ground in a rather harsh fashion, but only then he could’ve got her out of the way of the wolf’s jaws in time. Instead, Thomas himself leapt forward, thrusting his sword into the wolf’s chest, getting an unfortunate jab at his head from one of the wolf’s claws in the process. Thomas yelled in pain as the wolf dissolved and he fell forward on the grass. The sword ended up on the ground in front of him.

  “Thomas!” Samira cried as she got on all fours as quick as she could. “Is everything all right?”

  Thomas didn’t reply immediately; he tried to push himself up on his elbows while moaning in pain. “I... believe I got hit in the head,” he groaned.

  Samira inspected the wound on his head, while carefully wiping hair out of the wound with a delicate finger. She was holding his head up by his chin with her other hand; Thomas groaned silently whenever she accidentally touched the wound; he didn’t want to make himself look vulnerable by showing it hurt.

  “We’ve got to go back to Gabriel,” James said, who’d knelt down beside his sister to gauge the severity of Thomas’ wound. “We don’t have anything to treat this kind of wounds; we should at least ask Gabriel for help. I’m sure he will know what to do.”

  “It’s – I’m fine,” Thomas grunted. “It doesn’t– hurt – that – much, really. We can – urgh – go on.” He groaned painfully a few times while talking, although it was obvious that he was trying hard his hardest not to.

  Samira tilted her head, looking at Thomas with a worried shimmer reflecting in her sky blue eyes. “You weren’t expecting us to actually believe that, now were you?” she said.

  Thomas offered her a faint grin. “I was kind of hoping you would,” he said. “But... you’re right. You wouldn’t.”

  “Come on, big guy,” Antonio said, carefully grabbing Thomas’ shoulders. “We’ve got to get you to Gabriel. James, can you help me get him up?”

  James nodded, and together the two boys helped their friend to get back on his feet.

  He leaned on both of them as they walked back to Gabriel’s hideout, while Bella and Samira kept an eye out for any other attackers.

  The teenagers ran into Gabriel not far from his house; he was hunting for food. As soon as he saw the teenagers approaching him he dropped his weapons – he’d just shot a pigeon, but didn’t seem to care enough to go get it first – and rushed toward the teens to help them.

  “Do you think you can stay in balance long enough to climb the stairs?” Gabriel asked Thomas, who responded with a nod. He then proceeded to do so, with Gabriel providing support behind him and Antonio in front of him. The others followed closely.

  Thomas did stagger a few times, but managed to stay on his feet until he was inside.

  He sat down on the makeshift pillow-couch, with Samira beside him. Gabriel cleaned two pieces of cloth in a bucket of clear water; he used one to clean the wound and put a green paste he’d got from a small shelf on his wall on the other. He used the cloth to bandage Thomas’ head wound, explaining the paste would stimulate the natural healing process.

  “Just try not to touch it too much and you should be fine,” Gabriel said. Thomas nodded.

  “I understand why you guys came back,” Gabriel said, “but next time someone gets gravely injured, you might not make it to someone who can help you.” He paused. “But there is someo
ne who can help you; Eloine, Queen of the fairies. She lives in the forest of the Silver Valley. You should go find her; she can teach one of you how to heal with fairy Magic. This is crucial for your survival.”

  James looked at Gabriel. “Who will she teach how to heal?”

  “Whoever the Queen thinks is the right person to teach the fairy ways,” Gabriel said. “I’d advise you to travel during the night; sleeping during the night is too dangerous, as the Shadow Creatures have free play in the dark.

  You should be able to make it to the Silver Valley within three to five days.”

  Samira looked at Thomas as they stood up. “Are you sure you can manage?” she asked.

  Thomas looked at her as if she was crazy. “Of course I can,” he said. “Just... don’t make me run. Or jump.” Both he and Samira chuckled.

  They said goodbye to Gabriel one more time, promising to head straight to the Silver Valley.

  “There’ll be a surprise waiting for you when you get there,” Gabriel had said. “Just you wait; I promise it’s a pleasant one.”

  But they sure had learned from this experience; it’d become clear to them that on their own, the Guardians would never be able to survive. They had to stick together, which was of course the purpose of being the Bond of Light. Everything the Keepers had told them was related to teamwork. The Ritual had to be performed by the five of them; they had to help each other overcome their fears. Everything they were going to have to face and go through would be to test the strength of their friendship and how well they could work together as a team.

  And if they could not work together as a team, they’d fail, like every other Generation before them had.